HANG TIME, Texas – Stop me if you’ve heard this one: A priest, a rabbi and DeMarcus Cousins are sitting on a bench…

Yeah, it’s getting to be the kind of stale old joke that sounds like it came out of the Catskills in the 1950s.

Cousins is at the center of another flap. This time the Kings’ leading scorer and rebounder was left in the locker room at halftime Friday night following a verbal run-in with coach Keith Smart.

As a result, Cousins has been suspended indefinitely for unprofessional behavior and conduct detrimental to the team,” according to Kings president of basketball operations Geoff Petrie.

Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee delivers the details that were available:

“It was conduct detrimental to the team and we left it at that,” Smart said without elaborating.

Smart did not say if Cousins would play Sunday against the Portland Trail Blazers.

“I’m going to focus on (Friday night),” Smart said. “And then I’ll move forward to the next day.”

Cousins said he “was in the wrong” during halftime.

“What happens in the locker room stays in the locker room, but I was wrong,” Cousins said. “But what happens in the locker room stays in the locker room.”

Cousins then was asked what he could do to avoid further situations where attention was on his actions off the court.

“Don’t talk back,” Cousins said. “That’s the thing. I shouldn’t have responded back. Should have accepted what was said and stayed quiet.”

Of course, nobody has ever questioned the raw talent and ability that Cousins possesses, only the maturity and professionalism that he doesn’t.

As a potential foundation-type player on the front line, it was understandable that Kings management sided with Cousins and gave Paul Westphal the ax when the two of them couldn’t get along.

There may also be legitimate reasons to question whether Smart (73-134 career record) has the right stuff to be a successful coach in the NBA. But the main reason he was brought in to replace Westphal and had his contract extended was because he could supposedly relate to Cousins and steer him correctly and now that plan seem to have jumped off the tracks.

Already this season, Cousins has been suspended two games for confronting Spurs broadcaster Sean Elliott after a game, suspended another for whacking the Mavs’ O.J. Mayo in the groin and ejected in the third quarter of one more game for arguing calls by the refs. Now this.

More from Jones:

“We’re trying to set a standard for all of our players and all our guys who are here,” Smart said after the game. “When guys don’t fall in line to that we’ve got to move on.”

Smart intends to maintain this stance, too. You have to assume that means penalties will escalate if the behavior does not change.

Smart wouldn’t address whether Cousins would play in Sunday’s game against Portland. If he does, another blowup could mean suspensions for conduct detrimental to the team.

Cousins doesn’t believe Friday’s incident will be held over his head and that he and Smart can move past the incident.

“It happens all the time between players and coaches,” Cousins said. “I believe we’ll talk about it, get past it and we’ll move forward.”

Cousins can only hope. All of these shenanigans are overlooked if he were delivering like the punchline in the Kings’ lineup. But after a breakout season a year ago, Cousins has not only reverted to troublesome form with his behavior, but his play has deteriorated as well, not concentrating on defense and taking far too many bad shots.

Could Cousins simply be tiring of the losing atmosphere in Sacramento and trying to force the Kings to ship him out of town?

We can only assume that he knows the rest of the NBA gets LeaguePass. The offers coming in at this point for a mediocre malcontent would hardly make the Kings want to jump at this point.

59 Comments

[…] Also, there are two players in the NBA that I believe can turn into superstars very soon. One is continuing to rise and the other just can’t figure it out. These two are Kyrie Irving and DeMarcus Cousins. Irving is looking like an All-Star this year and will pretty soon be considered one of the top PG’s in the NBA. He is marketable, a leader, and a remarkable talent. Cousins however, continues to have mental let downs. He has all the talent in the world to dominate the NBA, but there is something missing in him. He is too immature right now and continues to make the wrong decisions. […]

He is a lot like Kevin Garnett. A rough around the edges doesn’t always makes the best decisions player that plays rough. People don;t care when you win but when you lose all of sudden that same stuff is unacceptable. If the kings were a winning team no would care. Did Wade get suspended for yelling at Spoelstra their first year? Did Kobe get suspended for yelling at Mike Brown and anyone around him anytime he did it? I agree he is a good player that hates losing stuck on a horrible team with horrible management and that is always a bad combination.

I predict he will get traded and then FEROCIOUSLY DOMINATE like a Shaq with Magic Johnson’s ball handling skills on a team that believes in him & you fools will have to eat your whinny pessimistic words!!

I don’t feel bad for him. Yes the Kings have been struggling but the only person ruining Demarcus Cousins’ career is Demarcus Cousins. He is one of the most talented players in the NBA but his own childishness and lack of self control is gonna be his downfall.

Kevin Durant winning percentage just recently hit 500. In all those losing years he didn’t cry & whine and try to get traded. He stayed with the Thunder and helped build a hell of a team. Good guy. Maybe if Cousins tried being more like KD, maybe he could help build the Kings.

Cousins needs to learn to respect the decisions of his couch, they should give him a reality check and stop treating him so spoil, he gets away with a lot on the count that he is the teams top player, i think the couch made a great decision by sitting him in the 2nd half, …as for the team, they have good young talented players that have the ability to better themselves but most of the pieces dont mix well…and before getting a new couch they should try hiring a new manager

Kings arent going to make the playoffs. Im pretty sure hes still elidgable to go down to the D-League. Send him down and make him ride the bus for a bit. He’ll come back up and work his tail off. That or get Charles Oakley on your coaching staff, he’ll fix him up

If cousins plays bad its because the team’s offense is horrible, its all one on one, no real team work and it doesn’t start from the post either. The Kings are not a team period and that can only be the fault of weak coaches. Just look at what Woodson brought to the Knicks. He brought discipline and something to work for (work hard and you get playing time). He challenged even their best player to get into even better shape than he was a season ago. Greg Popovich has continually done the same thing for the spurs, bring discipline. Even Phil Jackson did that with the egos he had to deal with on the Lakers. A coach that can’t bring order and proper discipline as well as structure to their team, should not be coaching. Coaches make good money, for the money people make in the NBA everyone should be trying to go above and beyond, thinking outside the box and do more than just a normal people would. The kings have the talent!!! Where is the discipline?!

thats exactly what the C’s need, lol, Rondo the sook beside him, i can see that team working. three of the biggest in the league. Terry Cousins and Rondo.
yes given he is 22, but look at the people who are closest to his age leadng by example. Durant, Harden, Irving… He should just do his job, work hard and be happy….. The man should watch the hard work by Noah and David Lee…two people who personify energy determination and never giving up when the going gets tough.

Sounds like Celtics fans really want this dude. Good luck on that one. A young, brute of a center,( attitude problems or not) Who would you give up for him? KG? lol. Sacramento is not going to just give him away.

It’s time to blackball this guy and get him out of the league. He’s got all this hype around him, the great false hope, which is the cousin of he’ll never get them to the playoffs and it would be almost sinful to think they could win a championship with a distraction like this on their team. Amnesty and move on!

Cousins is a bit like Benoit Benjamin. Benjamin was talented and big. And he got all the breaks despite attitude and conditioning issues, because there weren’t many players with his size and talent in the world. He put up numbers when playing for a contract, then he’d coast till he had to play for another contract. Some people thought he would be so much better if he could get out of the woefully mismanaged Clippers organization. Then in 90-91 he put together a string of huge games topping 20 points and 20 rebounds multiple times, which gave the Clippers their best chance to get a good return from a trade. Off to the Sonics he went, traded for the less talented Olden Polynice + draft picks. In Benjamin’s next game in L.A. against his former team he was booed, and his response was the middle finger, proving he was still the same old dummy after all those years in the NBA. Polynice helped that Clipper team reach the playoffs in ’92. Benjamin eventually was replaced by 6′ 9″ Micheal Cage midway through the ’92 playoffs, after which his career plummeted into obscurity. There have been other talented bigs with questionable attitudes who were given too many chances, almost all ending up being remembered as wasted potential rather than as great and talented big men.

In Cousins’ defense, he should have knocked out Sean Elliott. He and Bill Land are the most unbearable NBA broadcasting tandem in the country, followed closely by Fred McLeod and Austin Carr and Craig Bolerjack and Matt Harpring. In fact, Cousins should knock out all six.

I wish the Kings would get the guy some help. People can theorize about him being spoled or treat this like he can just make a decision and change in a single moment. Maybe he can, or maybe he could use some professional help. If the Kings are willing to invest tens of millions of dollars in this guy, why not a few hundred thousand more and help him get right, mentally and emotionally?

Why would the Kings care about getting him some help when their only primary and genuine concern is weaseling their way out of town. Demarcus Cousins does absolutely nothing to increase the value of the franchise for an out-of-town buyer. By eliminating him, they can keep selling the imaginary value of another lottery pick while still attending their daily meetings as to how they’re going to leave and where. He’s not worth the headache to them, and they’ll pawn him for 40 cents on the dollar by the trade deadline.

See, the problem is they brought the wrong coach in. They brought someone who would “relate” to him. That sounds too much like giving in to him. He will just take advantage of that. You need an old school coach that’s played the game..ie. Charles Oakley, known for his toughness. A P.F. with Michael Jordon. I could just see Demarcus getting into his face and expecting the usual response of backing off. hehe. I’d pay good money to see what happens next.

I’ve always said it, Cousins is a spoiled child that does not play smart when he needs to be. He is a very skilled big man but often times than not, he gets his emotion taking over the best of him, which results in very immature actions.

It seems that we always see him getting into technical fouls, rejections, suspensions. Maybe he needs to be sent to the anger management league before coming to the NBA. He is so unprofessional and still acting like a child

The guy’s 22 years old guys. Barkley was (and still is) a big mouth and yet he had a wonderfull career. Denis Rodman was (and still is) a bomb ready to explode and he won 5 championships. Demarcus is an amazing player and has a bright future and his mouth is part of the package. He’ll learn how to manage it, just give him some time.

He is showing that he is not an amazing player. He looks much worse than last year, like the league has figured him out and hes overmatched athletically by 7 ft centers. If he made the jump from last years 18 and 11, to say 20 and 12, then he would be given a longer leash. But he is much worse at 16 and 9 and shooting terrible from the field, along with awful defense and a ton of dumb dumb dumb turnovers.

You’re wrongfully comparing Cousins to Barkley and Rodman. Barkley played on the 1984 Olympic Team, is one of the NBA’s top 50, was a perennial all star, and a great talent. His mouth didn’t get him into trouble until after his first few years in the league, and most of Barkley’s rants were off-court, out of the arena, actually. Also, that was a different time in terms of the NBA’s sensitivity to poor player behavior. But bottom line, Barkley was a much better talent than Cousins.

The same for Rodman. The Worm didn’t really go crazy until after he left Detroit. While there he was energetic, a little crazy, kind of a dirty player, but he still played team basketball and developed into a defensive star. Only when he went to San Antonio and other places did he start to act out with the crazy behavior, hair color changes, etc. However, he had established himself as a bona fide talent by then, one that could help teams win championships. That is why the Bulls picked him up, despite his head-case status. Also, when the Bulls picked him up, they had some of the greatest minds in basketball with Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan.

Bottom line, Barkley and Rodman developed their talent and helped their teams become great, or at least contenders, before their foul behavior was on display. For Cousins to develop this reputation for himself this early in his career doesn’t bode well. I like that line in the article by the way of Cousins being too young to be an old joke.

@ JordanFan, excuse me if I am wrong sir but I don’t think he was comparing Demarcus’ play to Denis Rodman and/or Charles Barkley but I think he was more so comparing their antics which, I believe, isn’t so far off..

Never thought I would say this but I actually feel bad for Cousins. He is talented no question about it, he averages 16.6 points and 9.5 boards per game and every talented player gets tired of loosing in this hopeless organization that is Sacramento. He is basically the only guy alongside with Tyreke that carries the whole team on their shoulders but it’s obviously not enough when the organization has no direction. Now that Tyreke might be traded puts them even worse. How many more years will they need to rebuild?

You feel bad? He is doing what he loves and making more money a month than the average person does in a year. His attitude rubs off on others. The Kings are not a bad team, I honestly expected them to make it to the playoffs this season. He needs to grow the eff up and realize that the same temper tantrums mommy gave into because she was sick of his whining does not work in a mans world. It is pathetic. What a waste of talent.

No matter how much money you make no one likes to lose every game and be the laughing stock of the league. If you were a medical doctor and 78% of your patience died would you be happy and say im doing what i love and i make a lot of money so oh well.

When I say I feel bad for him is not financially wise but sports wise. A player of his talent after the 3rd year in the league deserves to be in a playoff team which I don’t see Sacramento clinch the 8th seed anytime soon and it’s not because of his fault, I actually see them as one of the worst teams on the league for at least a couple of years. I think that he might land in Boston or San Antonio.

You have no idea what you are talking about if you think Cousins and Evans are carrying this team. Cousins is shooting a horrific 41 percent from the field for a guy that gets a lot of dunks and point blank putbacks. Hes the laziest player I have ever seen and most games he looks and acts like he is being punished to have to play in the NBA and make millions. He destroyed his own trade value if that was his goal to get traded, he put his team in an impossible spot where nobody wants him.

You’re not making sense. The Sacramento Kings care that he destroyed his trade value, but what does Cousins care. In fact, he now has probably paved the way for a trade to a far superior franchise and organization, because there are only a few that have a solid track record of successfully babysitting grown children. Being in places like Sacramento, Washington, Charlotte, Cleveland and the other pitiful organizations with pathetic coaching and management is akin to contracting leprosy. When it comes time for him to re-up, he’d still be offered a huge contract from someplace, because there is always a stupid GM for a bad organization willing to take a chance. But this guy now has unintentionally made life a helluva lot better for himself, now and in the future.